Microsoft Windows Refund for the Bay Area

On Windows
Refund Day (February 15, 1999), users of non-Microsoft operating
systems will bring their Microsoft Windows original disks, manuals,
and Certificates of Authenticity to the
Microsoft office in
Foster City, California to ask for a refund.

Further information on the Microsoft End User License
Agreement is at the Windows Refund Center in the Resources section
below.

Schedule:

All attendees who will be returning software: Please e-mail
arlo@linuxmafia.com
immediately. We need a head count.

Everyone should assemble at the nearest of our four "Posse"
assembly points, from which we will carpool/caravan at 10 AM.
Do not go directly to Foster City. Posse organizers
and parade marshals will do briefings and check-ins prior to
the carpool, and you won't want to miss the t-shirts.

Oakland: Meet Posse organizer Scott McNeil at the passenger
pickup zone at the entrance to MacArthur BART, no later than 10
AM.
Also, please notify Scott immediately that you will be
coming, at
ebay@linuxmafia.com.
Please include if you can offer or are in need of a ride!
Please note that the BART parking lot is for BART patrons. There
is nearby on-street parking.
(Directions.)(Map.)

Santa Clara: Meet Posse organizer Ian Kluft outside the Hotel
Marriott Santa Clara, 2700 Mission College Blvd @ Great America,
no later than 10 AM, at the "F7" parking post near the tennis courts.
Also, please notify Ian immediately that you will be
coming, at
sc@linuxmafia.com.
(Directions.)(Map.)

Stick around, because we're also
going to have a party to remember afterwards, at The CoffeeNet
in San Francisco.

We are encouraging everyone to stick together and present a
calm and polite, but firm, request for our refund.

The message is not "Windows sucks, I want my money back." The
message is "I choose not to accept this license, and am therefore
exercising my right to return the product for a refund."

The quality or lack of quality of Microsoft products is not the
issue.

If you are seeking a refund, we expect you to
provide some documentation for the fact that you are not using the
Microsoft products you are returning. Bring your computer if you
can schlep it, but if you choose not to bring the computer, please
bring a copy of your non-Microsoft OS, a printout of your partition
table, name tag or raffle ticket from a free OS event, or something
else to substantiate that you aren't just a random copyright violator
looking for a handout.

If you are not seeking a refund, and simply want
to come along for the spectacle, that's fine too. We request that you
not get in the way of people getting their refunds, and that you act
politely to Microsoft employees and to the media.

We will make further information on handling the
media available here, since we want to present our OSs of choice in
the best possible light without embarassing Microsoft, since they are
only giving us the refunds we want.

We have received a lot of positive interest in this
event, so we are recruiting "parade marshals" to help keep everyone
together and peaceful.
Please send mail to marshals@linuxmafia.com if
you would like to volunteer. Vandals and troublemakers, please stay
home. This will be an orderly event and we don't want anyone to get
hurt.

Penguin Computing
article/press release details how this Linux PC-hardware VAR has tried
extensively to arrange with laptop vendors such as Toshiba, NEC, etc.
to buy machines without a mandatory copy of Windows98, and met with
universal refusal.